Brixton Academy has always been my favourite London venue. It has held the biggest names in pop and rock since the 1960’s and a place that isnt corporately cloned by another venue for the satisfaction of it’s clientelle. It’s unique and is a place unchanged since it’s hayday; a place where new talents can leave their mark in history, a place where you can still crouch down amd light a joint and you can still get a pint of luke-warm piss lobbed at your back at any moment. You wouldn’t have it any other way I’m sure.
The xx haven’t stopped since their 2009 stunning debut with it’s minimalist and soulful pop songs. Their confidence has grown, as have the bands onstage chemistry. Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim‘s vocal duelling is simply breathtaking and their voices have blossomed.
‘Coexist“, The xx‘s excellent follow up album has trimmed the fat and produced even more soulful numbers and morphed the indie pop songs into beautiful and unique dance numbers whilst transforming the debut albums tracks into this new aesthetic live. Songs such as “Crystalized” and “Shelter” are given new leaces of life by livening up with loud bits with Jamie XX‘s samples and extremely creative drum sounds, whilst the aforementioned Madley-Croft and Sim deliver more tender moments have been stripped down to just a joint vocal and a guitar.
The band’s opener for the night, “Angels” comes across euphorically poignant and sits as a nice platform for tracks like “Reunion“, “Missing” and “Swept Away” to become the thumping live anthems they were destined to be.
The two most special moments for myself were the awe inspiring transitions of “Fiction“, with it’s irresistable guitar line backed my Jamie XX‘s inspired pips and twinkles, along with the fantastic ‘Infinity’ which swells and boils into the biggest moment of the set with duelling vocals howling over each other to a reverberated morse-code of emotion (along with that awesome snare sound that sounds like a shopping trolley crashing into another shopping trolley.
The diversity of the audience for the night shows how special The xx are and they deserve to go down in history as one of those terrific live acts and I hope this show was one of those events.
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Post by TR Wicks
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